iRobot Movement & Image Analysis
At the synthetic biology and biomimetics lab I worked on a bacteria guided robot project. This project had several different components:
1) The robot movement - iRobot movements were coded in Python. I designed the robot to first go through a maze based on bacteria fluorescence. This action was later changed to the robot docking to its base based on bacteria fluorescence.
2) Image Analysis - Me and my teammate wrote a python based program to analyze analyze bacteria fluorescence in each biomimetic chip compartment and decide where enough compartments were emitting fluorescence to change bacteria movement or not.
3) Biomimetic chips - I made PDMS chips to house E.Coli bacteria with 3 input channels, and several bacteria housing compartments.
4) Culturing - I cultured an E.Coli bacteria strain with a synthetic network designed to emit fluorescence based on lactose presence.